East Stroudsburg man to be tried in Quality Inn murder

Myles White, 21, of East Stroudsburg, will be tried on charges of killing and robbing Blake Natal, 22, of Tobyhanna, on Jan. 15 outside the Quality Inn in Stroudsburg.

ANDREW SCOTT

"I choked him up."

"I laid him out."

Those are words attributed to the killer of a man found dead in Stroudsburg's Quality Inn parking lot on Jan. 15, according to a woman who testified in court Monday.

The woman, Venus Linan, 28, of Scranton, admitted to using the credit card stolen from victim Blake Natal, 22, of Tobyhanna, just hours after Natal was slain.

Myles White, 21, of East Stroudsburg, and Ralph Maldonado, 33, of Scranton, are accused of targeting Natal for a robbery; prosecutors say White did the actual murder.

During White's preliminary hearing Monday, Natal's mother, Debra Natal, sat in the back of the Stroudsburg district courtroom and listened to Linan testify to hearing White and Maldonado talk about the incident afterward.

With her face showing the emotional pain of her loss, Debra Natal sat facing away from the witness stand as Linan and then Stroud Area Regional Police Detective Richard Wolbert testified. She did not see when the prosecution handed a photo of her murdered son to Wolbert, who identified the victim and then handed the photo back.

At the end of the hearing, Magisterial District Judge Kristina Anzini found sufficient evidence had been presented to send all charges against White to trial in Monroe County Court.

Testimony and a police affidavit gives the following account:

On the night of Jan. 15, White and Maldonado decided to rob Natal, who was driving a Lincoln Navigator and wearing nice clothes, after seeing him pull into the Quality Inn parking lot.

As Natal opened his door to step out, White approached him, stuck a handgun in Natal's mouth, pulled him out of the vehicle and told him to "give it up." When Natal struggled, White put him in a choke hold from behind and forced him to the ground, choking him to death.

White then took Natal's cell phone, earring and wallet with his credit card. White and Maldonado then left the scene, driving separate vehicles.

White met up with Maldonado in Coolbaugh Township, where Maldonado's sister lived at the time. The two then drove to Scranton, where Maldonado was living with his girlfriend Linan, their children and his mother, Sonia Maldonado, 50.

Linan testified Monday that she and Sonia Maldonado were home when White and Ralph Maldonado arrived that night. Linan said she overheard the two men talking about how White had choked and robbed Natal.

"They said they didn't know if (Natal) was hurt bad," she said, indicating the two men didn't know Natal was dead.

Linan said White showed her Natal's earring and asked her if it was real silver. She said her boyfriend told her he had bought a credit card from White and that he gave the card to his mother, who later gave it to her. She saw Natal's name on the card.

Linan said White told her to go to the store and use the card to buy items he could sell later. Linan said she bought various items, including a flat-screen TV, in nearby Dickson City, and brought the TV back to the house, where White took possession of it.

Later, after he was arrested, Maldonado took detectives to White's front yard, where he claimed White buried the gun under crates, according to police. Wolbert testified Monday that police had not retrieved a gun.

Wolbert said White's fingerprints have been sent out for lab analysis and that police had just gotten a warrant Monday to obtain DNA samples from him.

After hearing testimony, defense attorney Michael Ventrella told the judge the prosecution at that point had presented no physical evidence tying White to the crime. Since the level of the burden of proof is lower at the district court preliminary hearing stage than it is at the trial stage, the judge found enough evidence had been presented to send the case to trial.

"(Linan and Ralph Maldonado) are lying to save their own butts because the District Attorney's Office is going to offer them a deal," Ventrella told reporters afterward.

When asked what he thinks really happened on the night of Natal's death, Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso said, "It's not my place to offer my opinion. We'll leave it to a jury to decide what really happened."

White is charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, robbery, theft and receiving stolen property. He and Ralph Maldonado remain in Monroe County Correctional Facility without bail. Linan and Sonia Maldonado remain in county jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

All four will appear in county court at future dates.

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